A conventional procedure in the extraction of honey from the comb is to remove the cell-waxcaps of the comb with a special knife heated by steam or electricity. Because honeycombs are often rough and uneven, this procedure is found to be tedious and oftentimes wasteful of honey. Accordingly, machines have been developed to automatically decap honeycombs without specific use of a heated blade.
One such devices is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 2,448,775 to Crane (Sept. 7, 1948). Crane discloses an endless conveyor having spaced lugs for receiving individual honeycombs. Each honeycomb is moved by the conveyor through a station including a pair of rotating brushes and a spring loaded shoe having curved end portions which serve to hold the honeycomb frame snugly in place as it passes through the brushes. The rotating brushes act on both sides of the honeycomb frames simultaneously.
The usefulness of the Crane device is limited to sizes of honeycomb frames which fit between the space lugs of the conveyor. Additionally, the decapping action of the brushes takes place adjacent the conveyor. Consequently, the Crane design limits the transverse extent of its brushes so as to avoid imposing action of the brushes upon the conveyor. Otherwise, the brushes would cause accelerated wear and possibly premature failure of the conveyor with the reach of the brushes being limited, the spring loaded shoe of Crane is necessary for properly locating the honeycomb frame relative to the brushes. The arrangement also limits effectiveness for decapping honeycomb cells located adjacent the honeycomb frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,448,986 to Ladwig (Sept. 7, 1948) shows a comb decapper device in which a honeycomb frame is placed on a carriage which slides along a pair of rails over a drum having prongs which perform the decapping operation. Again as in Crane, the transverse extent of the prong drum is limited by the presence of the railed transport arrangement which must pass thereby. Otherwise, the pronged drum would work upon the carriage and create an undesirable degree of wear upon the carriage. This shortcoming makes it difficult to decap honeycomb cells located adjacent the honeycomb frame.
Ladwig also teaches the use of prongs as an alternative to the use of brushes, because brushes soon become clogged with wax and honey and become ineffective and unsanitary unless cleaned frequently.
However, the prongs of Ladwig which are intended to overcome the wire brushes, create problems of their own in that precautions must be taken to avoid their striking the honeycomb frame and the frame conveying arrangement because of the increased amount of damage that the rigid prongs would inflict on those elements.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,523,963 to Hodgson (Jan. 20, 1925) discloses a decapping device for honeycombs which includes rotating brushes which act on opposite sides of the honeycomb. In the Hodgson device, the honeycombs are individually moved horizontally in a frame between the rotating brushes. Accordingly, the arrangement is suited for only a specific size of hoenycomb frame. As with the other prior arrangements, the Hodgson supports the honeycomb at only limited regions of the honeycomb frame, which situation concentrates stresses on the frame.